'Kickout battle is going to be huge' All Star 'keeper on Ryan-Patton match-up

Irish Daily Mirror

7 days ago

For all the revolution that the new rules have brought to football, the most profound has been around the kickout.
And so, in an All-Ireland final that is exceptionally difficult to call, it's reasonable to advance the theory that, for all the brilliance of the likes of David Clifford and Michael Murphy in either attack, the respective goalkeepers will wield the greatest influence on the outcome.
Shaun Patton is hailed as one of the leading netminders in the game, arguably the best, and his talents will be exposed to final day for the first time this Sunday.
It may be a surprise to many that the Donegal 'keeper has yet to win an All Star, though that's largely down to his county's failure to reach the latter stage of the Championship for most of his inter-county career, which is now in its eighth season.
This week, former Kerry star Marc Ó Sé stated that 'if we can stop Patton, we've a great chance – we've one hand on the cup', citing the length and accuracy of his restarts.
Ryan, meanwhile, despite winning an All-Ireland and All Star in 2022, doesn't quite command the same profile as other goalkeepers like Patton, Stephen Cluxton, Rory Beggan and Niall Morgan.
'Shane, in my opinion, is totally underrated all round as a goalkeeper,' says Tyrone 'keeper Morgan. 'He's rarely talked about in terms of the top 'keepers in Ireland when he's consistently been there the last three or four years. It's just Kerry always seem to be talked about in their attacking sense.' Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan (Image: Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/James Crombie)
Ahead of the final, Ryan pointed out how the new rules have forced goalkeepers to lower their expectations on kickouts, saying that while a 65/70% retention rate would have been just about acceptable last year, 'this year you would bite a fella's hand off for it'.
'It's very difficult to accept that you're not getting anywhere close to 100% anymore,' Morgan admits. 'It used to be that teams would have stood off for a good few of the kickouts, obviously with the old rules that doesn't happen anymore so most of them are a contest.
'I would totally agree that if you're winning 65-70% of your kickouts, you would more than take it but the big thing is what you're doing with the kickouts after you win them and Kerry and Donegal are both exceptionally good at turning those kickout wins into scores.'
In their runaway win over Meath, Donegal mined 2-13 from Patton's kickout on his 100th appearance for the county and, while Sunday's game is virtually certain to be much more evenly contested, it's easy to see why Ó Sé places such weight on curbing his influence.
Patton had an uncharacteristic meltdown in the first half of Donegal's quarter-final win over Monaghan, but Morgan doesn't believe that Kerry should draw too much encouragement from that given that he wasn't long back from an ankle injury. Donegal's Shaun Patton (Image: ©INPHO/Tommy Dickson)
'I know he had a bit of a knock in the Ulster final and didn't play against us in the group stage either so I think that was a case of getting him recovered and I don't think there's a chink in either of their armours if I'm being honest.'
Somewhat reminiscent of David Clarke during Mayo's run to the 2017 final, Ryan has come to Kerry's rescue several times this campaign with that fundamental goalkeeping requirement that has almost become incidental these days - one-on-one saves.
But while Morgan says that both are 'absolutely brilliant shot-stoppers', ultimately their influence on Sunday will still be felt most profoundly from what they produce off the tee.
'I think the kickout battle is going to be huge. I sort of look at it, over the whole game, over 50% of the kickouts in terms of both yours and the opposition's is going to set yourself up for a strong foothold in the game, it gives you the opportunity to launch your attacks and it's probably the time of the game when the other team isn't set up defensively, it gives you the opportunity to maybe get a goal or a bigger score.
'I think if you stand off either team on the kickouts, it's really dangerous. Giving them possession of the ball is what both teams want, they want to set things up and launch their attacks from deep.
'We saw it against Kerry, especially in the first half where we obviously put pressure on Seán O'Shea and Paudie Clifford but they were still more than capable of getting the ball up to pitch to David to do the damage and in the second half obviously, whenever David wasn't as much in the game then Joe O'Connor came into it so it'd be dangerous for either team to give up possession like that.
'Both 'keepers are key weapons for their teams and I expect whatever one of them can get on top at the weekend will set up their team really well.'